For a Time
by aliceyak
Summary: Ages ago, the young Moon Butterfly had a friend that she traveled the dimensions with, that stood by her side even when it meant betraying his own kind. It was a friendship doomed from the start, but they didn't care. See how they met, and what circumstances drove them apart.
1. The Wand in the Willows

Young Princess Moon was bored. Beyond bored. Tired and bored and frustrated with her mother. 'Overwhelmed' might be a nice way of putting it, and 'smothered' might be another.

Her wand was only a few weeks old, and its blue crystalline design matched her hair at the very least. She still wondered sometimes why it had chosen this form, but her mother simply said that it always changed to fit the new owner. It was a reflection of each new mistress's inner self.. So that's what she must be like, a fragile blue crystal that was nice to look at, but didn't look particularly powerful.

And she wouldn't get any more powerful if her mother didn't let her focus more on her spell work.

Moon had tried to focus on the words and illustrations in her enormous spell book, originally she had dove into it thinking she would be a master caster within days, but that turned out not to be the case.

She wanted to be free to delve deeply into the book at her leisure, taking things at her own pace and studying whatever she felt like that day. But no, her mother had other plans for her.

Ever since she had been old enough to hold a pencil, the queen had set her daughter to lesson after lesson under the guise of giving her a well-rounded education, but Moon suspected that it was simply to keep her out of any trouble. Or possibly to keep her close without ever actually having to spend time with her, since between her lessons on history, arithmetic, etiquette, music, art, and so on, Moon barely ever saw her parents. Until she received the family wand, that is.

Honestly, Moon had been used to it, it was a pretty good system, but she had to go and rock the boat by turning fourteen and taking on the responsibility of the wand. Now it went from one extreme to the other, she now could no longer get a free moment away from her mother to practice her spells by herself. This was something that Moon could almost tolerate, if it weren't that they would always go over what seemed like the same ten spells over and over again.

And Glossyrck was no help. She had no idea how he could be so vague with his instructions and still expect her to do them as perfect as her mother wanted. Honestly, wasn't the fact that she had the wand enough? She knew the spells already, surely she didn't need to follow each and every step so meticulously. It was frankly just plain dull.

Moon thought that maybe if she could have a chance to practice on her own without her mother or that odd little man breathing down her neck, she might make some progress.

But getting time away was the hard part.

"Concentrate, darling," her mother admonished from the sidelines on a particularly frustrating afternoon.

"She's not doing all the steps, my lady," Glossyrck called to her from the book.

"I am too," Moon whined. "I'm sure I did all of them."

"You forgot the last pirouette on the last word," her mother pointed out. Moon wanted to groan with frustration, but that was 'terribly unladylike'. Then again, so was whining.

"Is there any way that I could just do this by myself?" She asked as she walked through the spell dance once again. "Maybe I could improve if I weren't so- distracted." She tried to delicately phrase the frustration she was feeling at their continued berating of her casting.

"Oh, did you hear that? We're distracting her. And I thought we were instructing, but no. We're distracting. I suppose that is what caused you to forget the wand position on the fourth step. Not your lack of studying."

"No no, Glossyrck. If she feels we are a distraction, perhaps we are. What then might you suggest, Moon? To help you focus?"

Moon wondered if this was a trick question. Her mother often gave her decidedly non-option options.  
'You can either eat your vegetables now like a proper princess or suffer a crippling vitamin deficiency.' 'You can play your recital in front of hundreds of people or disappoint your entire family'. 'You can study by yourself or become an embarrassment of a magical princess'. That type of thing.

"Just give me an hour by myself," she answered, catching herself twirling one of her ringlets anxiously. "Maybe let me practice in the gardens for a little while. If I don't improve you can monitor me all you want."

Her mother seemed to consider this, looking down from her seat towards the blue book man and back to Moon, who was hopeful she had kept the whine out of her request. That was a sure fire way to get a 'no' from her mother.

"Please?" she added with her biggest of doe eyes.

Thankfully, the stars must have been in her favor, because her mother nodded in ascent, although a little tiredly.

"Very well, Moon. You have one hour. But I want to see a real improvement in your form."

"Yes ma'am."

"And follow * _every_ * step, dear," her mother added as she gestured that Moon was dismissed.

"Yes ma'am, thank you, " she beamed up at her mother and quickly scampered off towards the castle gardens. It wasn't much, but an hour away was just the break she could use. Of course she'd have to actually study while on it, but hey, a break was a break. She could at least enjoy the scenery while trying not to screw up the spell yet again.

* * *

In the garden she stood, wand in hand. Without Glossyrck the book just lay there silently, open to the page for a brand new spell. A brand new spell she was having trouble with.

"Okay, so it's a pirouette, then a guards' pose and then - making sure to rotate the wand ten degrees to the left - a half turn and then aim it at the target. " Moon tried her best to mimic the poses in the pictures, but she kept falling over herself after the pirouette, or saluting with the wrong hand during the Guards' Pose. Or smacking herself in the face with her wand a couple times.

This was the exact reason she wanted to try this alone. She could mess up as much as she surely was going to and no one would see. And especially nobody would criticize her.

At least, she thought she was alone.

Moon thought that – since this was a more advanced spell – that she could do it non-verbally and it would still work effectively, since she seemed to do better with non-verbal incantations. This however was not the case with this spell. She tried once more, speaking the words aloud this time and making sure to strike just the right pose on each word.

"Crystal lightning cascade!"

Finally, she had gotten it right. A shower of lightning bolts and sharp shards of shimmering rocks fell down all around her. Alright, so she had been aiming at a tree on the far side of the garden, but at least she was getting closer. Plus she had assumed that nobody was around to be caught up in the sudden lightning/rock storm.

That was until she heard a yelp of pain from behind her.

Jumping at the sound, she spun around and stood planted to the ground, wand brandished out in front of her.

"Who goes there?" she called. It had not sounded like anyone she knew, and a royal guard would be smart enough to stay out of range but still be visible.

After a moment, she called again. "Show yourself!"

At first there was no movement but for the branches of the Mewnian willow tree swaying in a late-afternoon breeze, but soon Moon could see a shadow emerging from behind it. An oddly shaped shadow, a non-Mewman shadow.

The figure raised clawed hands towards her, but not out of aggression, it raised them shakily, as if bracing for another hit of the magic barrage.

"No, no. Don't shoot that again. I mean you no harm."

"How do I know that? Come out from behind there," she warned. Moon wasn't sure if she could actually hit the figure with another intentional blast, but she tried to look intimidating all the same.

"Only if you promise not to shoot me," the figure answered back.

"Fine, just come out and tell me why you're here before I call the guards."

"There's no need for that," he said as he slowly emerged, for Moon could see now that it was a male. A male monster, one with long, black hair and very distinguishing reptilian features. His clothes were shabby and dirty, and she couldn't quite tell if the fear in his eyes was genuine. She wasn't certain that she was that scary. Then she noticed he wasn't really looking at her, but her wand.

Of course he was fearful of the wand, the monsters that once plagued Mewni had no magic of their own, but they knew that the royal family had it and could do just about anything to them if given the opportunity.

Although this monster didn't realize that Moon was still learning and probably couldn't do much damage to him, but that was besides the point. There was a monster – a real, live monster – inside the castle grounds. That was more than unheard of, that was just plain inconceivable.

Moon was more curious about this than she let on, but she tried to continue her all-business, threatening facade in the hopes that the monster might still be intimidated.

"How did you get in here?" she asked, keeping a hardness to her voice.

The monster kept his hands up but took a step closer. Slowly he lowered one hand towards the pockets of his tattered pants. Moon kept her wand pointed straight at him as he did this, but she allowed him to do it out of sheer curiosity, hoping that he wasn't about to pull a weapon of his own on her.

He still looked afraid, but now – Moon thought – slightly irritated that she still had the upper hand, that he had to take orders from her, a girl several years younger than he from the look of it (if monsters aged the same way as Mewmans, that was).

He pulled something from the depths of his pocket, something that shined in the light, reflecting the sun on its sharp, metal surface. For a split second, Moon thought it really was a weapon, but then she got a better look as she noticed his claws threaded through the handles at the top. They were scissors. Dimensional scissors.

"Where-where did you get those?" she asked, not able to hide the awe in her voice. It was astounding for one thing that a monster had infiltrated the castle, and even more astonishing that he'd managed to get a hold of his own dimensional device.

"You're not the only ones who know how these work, your highness," he answered, the fear leaving his face and voice the longer he beheld her. But Moon still kept her wand raised.

"So, why are you here?" she inquired. "With those you could go practically anywhere in any dimension, why come here?"

"I-" he halted, looking embarrassed which caught Moon off guard. "I got lost. I was just jumping through dimensions and I lost my way."

"You were?" she asked, surprising him now with her more conversational tone. "I mean, what for?"

She saw his tail give a swish before he answered, possibly a nervous gesture. "Because – well – because I can. I don't exactly fit in with the other monsters, so I figured I could just pick up and leave for a while. Haven't you ever wanted an escape?"

Her brow furrowed, was he telling the truth? She couldn't tell, all she could tell was that yes, indeed she had. With her overbearing mother and all the expectations and responsibility of becoming a queen, Moon had wanted an escape. If only for a little while.

"No, I don't suppose you do, being a princess. Living here in the lap of luxury. I'll bet you'd never want to leave."

That's where he was wrong. It was strange, because Moon didn't even know if this reptilian creature was telling the truth or not, but at his words she had felt a twinge of sympathy, the feel of something they had in common. That surprised her more than anything else that had occurred thus far.

"Now, if you aren't going to shoot me or arrest me, I'll go ahead and leave you to your luxury and magic," he said, slowly opening the scissors and beginning to make a cut in the fabric of reality.

"Wait!" Moon shouted, causing the monster to pause. For a crazy, half-formed idea had just come to her. A way of getting what she wanted most in the entire world. Time away from her mother to do magic on her own.

A smile grew on her face as she stared the monster down, finally lowering her wand to his continued surprise.

"Take me with you."

"What?" he gasped.

"You heard me," she stated. "Take me with you. I don't care where you're going. I need a break, a real one. A break from being the crowned princess."

He looked skeptical, but he hadn't walked through the portal yet, so she kept going.

"So let me come along with you and I won't call the guards, I won't even use magic on you. I swear."

He narrowed his eyes at her, and for a long minute she watched him ponder this idea. It was an absurd idea, Moon knew. She didn't know this monster, had no idea of his history or motives, but at that moment she didn't care. He had a way out of Mewni, and she wanted it desperately.

"Or I could knock those scissors out of your hand and have the guards on you in a second," she bluffed.

But her bluffed appeared to have done the trick, for he made a frustrated yet resigned sigh, and then swept his clawed hand outwards towards the portal, gesturing for her to go through first.

Her smile growing with every second at this impossible idea of hers, Moon didn't think twice. She practically skipped into the portal with the reptile following close behind. A new adventure waited for her, she could sense it. And she didn't even mind that a monster had made it possible.

Young Moon feeling smothered and tied down by her mother and her various duties, when she runs into Toffee she asks to run away with him (Because he has scissors ) and the Royal family think Toffee kidnapped her, but she kinda kidnapped him.

They jump through several places until finally Toffee puts his foot down and says she has to tell him why she wants to run away. She reveals that she isn't sure she's ready for the responsibility of the wand, it being the first step towards bring queen.

They then get attacked by some giant thing and Moon defends Toffee with the wand, but going so leads her guards to her location, and she pleades with them to spare T, since she was the one who snatched him, not vice versa.

They spare him on her behalf and Toffee is super grateful.  
She then proceeds to tell her mother it was him trying to get her to come home. She asks if Toffee can stay with them he has no family.

They resist since he's a monster, but reluctantly concede for a temporary time.

Reveal also that Toffee was sent to steal the wand. He doesn't, but his fascination with its magic is clearly shown.

Later on a short for how Moon and River met. Obviously he needs to think he's rescuing Moon from a monster by hunting Toffee and attacking him, and she stops him and straightens everything out. But River is clearly smitten with Moon, and this can cause jealously with Toffee.  
Of course it's only after she starts returning the interest that he gets really jealous.

Plus her mother dissaproves, and Moon likes that. Of course had she chosen Toffee her mom might have had a heart attack.

Why doesn't M go for T? Maybe she didn't let herself see him that way. She keeps herself focused on what she can do, because having a monster as a friend is unorthodox, but being in love with one is simply unacceptable. Literally, no one would accept them. She wants to do what she can for him, but in the end she chooses the role her mother wanted for her, the role she was born for. The perfect little future queen, and so that means saying goodbye to her childhood friend, and she let's him go. She chooses her magic and her crown over him. She would have had to give up the crown and her magic for him, and in the end she couldn't.


	2. Through a Portal Wetly

The first thing Moon felt as she skipped through the portal was a sudden change in gravity, and then a severe lack of solid ground beneath her. She tumbled through the air for a few seconds before landing with a mighty splash into a multi-colored body of water.

Swimming back up to the surface, she took two lungsfull of air and floated about, searching for the reptilian creature that had brought her to this evidently vast expanse of open ocean (Or rather, she had coerced him into bringing her).

She spun about in every direction, but could not see her makeshift-dimensional guide anywhere.

Finally, she heard the distant shout of someone falling growing louder and louder until it crescendoed with a loud sploosh.

Moon waited for him to come up for air before speaking.

"Oh, there you are," she spoke conversationally, as if jumping into an unfamiliar sea was what they had intended upon. She swam close to him as he bobbed along in the water, not floating quite as well as she. "So... where exactly are we?"

"From the looks of it, I'd say we're in the middle of the rainbow sea of the Dowager Dimension," he answered, running some of the colorful water through his claws for emphasis.

"The Dowager Dimension? Really? Is this where you were planning on going next?"

"Not exactly,"

"Then where-"

"I don't see how that really matters at the moment, princess," he remarked as they continued to float through the sea, at the mercy of the vibrantly turbulent current.

"Oh, yeah," Moon said, "I suppose not." For a moment she watched the rainbow colors of the sea mix in and out around them as she tried to swim while holding her wand (which was harder than it sounds)

"So, this is the Dowager Dimension, my mom mentioned it before, but I always pictured it being full of old bitties drinking afternoon tea."

"Apart from the sea,you're not far off," her guide replied, now eyeing the wand in one of her hands as it stroked the surface of the water. "Pardon my asking, but do you plan on using that at some point so we can get out of the open sea?"

Moon pushed her soaking hair behind her ear nervously. Of course, she hadn't even thought of using her magic. She'd never even attempted anything of the sort before, especially not in a practical setting. But she and her new companion were in need, so she thought she ought to at least give it a try.

She took a deep breath, cleared her mind and raised her wand above her head.

"Foamy floating boat construct!"

With a flash of magic blast the area around them started to bubble and spurt, forming a cloud of foam that came swirling together into the shape of a large sailboat.

It was squishy and a touch unstable near the edges, but the center was solid enough for the two of them to stand on. And they were safely up and out of the water.

Staying firmly in the center of her sea foam boat, Moon began shaking herself off and tapping her wand in an attempt to dry it.

Beside her, her reptilian companion also began to shake himself dry.

"Sea foam?" he asked skeptically, poking at the starboard side and pulling a bit off with a claw.

Moon shrugged. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?" _And I'm amazed that it worked this well_ , she thought.

Now that they were out of the water, Moon could fully take in the breathtaking beauty of the sea as the colors all mixed and swirled about, the golden sun above shining through the thin cloud layer to shine down on the water, causing the waves to sparkle.

At that moment, Moon did not think she could have picked a more spectacular place for her first dimensional trip.

Her lizard companion however, did not seem as impressed, but every now an then she caught sight of him looking to her, as if he were gauging her reaction to seeing the new scenery before them.

Again, curiosity struck her, and she wondered again what this creature could possibly have been doing portal jumping. She asked again, hoping to get a different answer this time.

"So after here, where were you planning to go next?"

He didn't look offended at least, but it did not appear he was ready to answer yet, either.

"Does it really matter?" he asked . "I'm more interested in where you might want to go, since you were the one who threatened me to take you along."

"I... hadn't really thought that far ahead, to be honest," she answered, glancing away from him back out to the open water. "Anywhere, really. I just got swept up in the prospect of having time to myself, and then when you said something about wanting to get away – exactly what I had been thinking – well, I figured I could just leap first and look later."

"That's not often the best strategy," he replied.

"I never said it was. And under normal circumstances I think I would have been too afraid to attempt it, but in the moment I suppose it was far scarier to think about life without any unpredictability."

"Unpredictability? "

"I don't suppose you'd understand, but ever since I was given this wand, " she held it up for him to see, hefting it in her hand. "it seems like my entire life is already written out for me. Master the spells. Take over as queen. Marry so I can have a daughter to pass the wand down to and then groom * _her_ * to be queen. It's just a lot of responsibility to think about when I only just got this thing."

She paused for a moment to look back at him intently, still not quite sure how much she should reveal about her magical prowess, or lack thereof.

After a moment, Moon decided that she might as well, he was being a good listener and he did bring her along, after all.

"I can barely master any spell, so it's simply just overwhelming to think I'll be expected to lead my people. Maybe I just wanted to get away to prove to myself I could, before I have to accept the role laid out for me."

He looked thoughtful at her words, and she was immediately embarrassed over her mini soliloquy. Surely he hadn't needed to know all of that. She was probably boring him with her problems.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He shook his head, then thinking better of it, he added. "Well, perhaps if you're apologizing for commandeering my escape for your own little adventure, then I suppose I accept. But for the rest, I should not think you have to."

Moon was surprised by his warmer, friendlier tone, though not unpleasantly.

"I may not know much of your magic or your rules, but it sounds to me like you at least understand the magnitude of your role. And, like anything important, you're afraid of screwing it up. Of that, I can relate."

She wanted to ask how that could possibly be, but given his repeated dodging of any of her previous questions, she decided against it and let him continue.

"So my advice to you - if you'll permit me – would be to forget the big picture for a moment, and focus on the first step, which for you would be the mastering of your magic."

"That's... actually not bad advice," she said. It would be a lot easier in her eyes if she could think of learning and mastering the spells as something she was doing on her own, and not as part of her training to be queen. "And if I'm by myself here, there's less pressure to get things absolutely right on the first go like when my mother is watching."

"Nobody here but me, and I can look away if you find that distracting," he answered. "Think about what we need to accomplish at the moment, and focus your magic on that."

"I suppose I could give it a try," Moon said. It felt nice to be getting some encouragement for a change. "Well, firstly we'll need a way of knowing where land is. So I could maybe call for some assistance."

She lifted her wand and pointed straight out at the rainbow waters that stretched out before them.

With a flick of her wrist and a jab with the wand, she called out, "Creature seeker summons!"

Immediately, rings of light emanated from the wand, growing in size as they were slowly expelled. They stretched out over the open water and far off into the horizon.

When the rings had died down and her wand was glow-less once again, Moon and her companion waited for a moment for something else to happen. She lowered the wand after a minute, fully expecting nothing to occur. She must have done something wrong with it. Perhaps it was different to summon sea creatures to come to her aid, or maybe it was simply a bum spell. She should have known she couldn't come up with them on the fly that way.

Then she heard a splashing swoosh of water coming towards the boat, and she looked over the side to see a pod of dolphins swimming up to them.

Moon couldn't believe her luck, so it had worked. She couldn't help but give a little hop as she smiled over at the reptile, who looked amused by her returned enthusiasm. Moon then called down to the dolphins, who had been squeaking excitedly to each other.

"Excuse me," she began politely."Thank you for coming to my call. We are in need of finding in which direction to sail towards to reach the land Could you please point us in the right way?"

The dolphin at the front chattered and squeaked with his comrades, and then he turned back towards Moon and gave a nod with a spray of water from his blowhole, which Moon took as an agreement.

They then sped off in the direction opposite the one they were currently pointed, so Moon and the reptile quickly turned their sail around and caught the wind to follow them. Well, he did most of the work getting the boat turned around, Moon just tried to stay out of the way and ensure the dolphins were not out of sight.

As they began following the dolphins, Moon noticed a school of pink and yellow fish also following along beside them, and soon after a couple narwhals, and a very large magenta whale. They seemed to all be coming out of the depths of the sea to answer her call as well.

"Wow," she remarked to her travel mate as they sped along behind the pod. "That spell must have been more powerful than I thought."

"It's encouraging when we discover that we're more capable than we originally thought," he answered.

Moon couldn't help but agree. Amazingly, her first few spells she had attempted without her mother's overbearing over-instructing had gone really well. Perhaps she truly did have a handle on this whole 'master the wand' business.

That was when the kraken showed up.

They heard it before they saw it, an enormous, gurgling eruption from the depths of the sea below them that shook the foundation of their sea foam vessel. The moment the roar had been uttered, their helpful dolphin friends – as well as the other sea creatures - all disappeared in a cloud of bubbles.

The wind had died, and they floated aimlessly for a few minutes, helplessly as hundreds of thousands of gallons of froth and foam shot into the air like a pillar as the creature broke the surface.

Its rainbow colored skin was a perfect camouflage, and their screams were drowned out by the deafening sound of its own. With one powerful swipe of its tentacle, it cut through their vessel like a knife through butter and the whole of the boat began to disintegrate around them.

Moon caught sight of her companion as he fell away from her into the sea once again, but this time she was stunned with fear. Fear and regret. This was all her fault. If he got eaten or destroyed by this kraken it would be her fault. This was her only thought as she landed with a crash into the water herself.

Pummeled by the waves crashing in around her from the creature's tentacles, Moon tried to hold her breath and think of a spell – any spell – that might work against a deadly sea beast.

She clutched her wand to her chest and let it light up so she could see, and then formed an air-trapping bubble around herself. There, now at least she could breathe, but she had to find the reptile, and then find a way to defeat this monster.

Moon used a quick non-verbal speeding spell to propel herself out of the water and summoned a flying fuchsia cloud to ride above the waves as she searched for her companion. She weaved in and out of the beast's appendages and the continuously turbulent water in search of him.

All the while the kraken roared and shot water into the air. Finally Moon spotted him, he was wrapped firmly in one of the tentacles and seemingly unconscious. Moon flew up higher on her flying cloud to get a netter view. He was caught by one of the shorter, lower tentacles. If Moon could think of something to get the kraken to drop him, she could scoop him up and they could fly away for as far as this cloud would last, for it too would surely end up disintegrating just as her flimsy boat had done.

But now wasn't the time for doubt or self-pity, someone needed Moon toact,and there wasn't anyone else who would do it for her.

She flew high above the kraken, aimed at the tentacle holding him, and stood atop her cloud, raising her wand and beginning to dance.

She tried with all her might to perform each step accurately, each pose with a determined punch.

At last, she aimed for the tentacle and shouted, "Crystal lightning cascade!"

What shot down directly at the kraken's smaller tentacle was exactly what Moon had intended, a lightning strike filled with shards of sharp crystal hitting the creature and causing it to give another roar – this time of pain – as it dropped the reptile and he landed again in the water.

Moon rushed down to catch him before he could sink to the bottom or be grasped again by another tentacle. She grabbed him by the shoulders and used her cloud to scoop him up. He was semi-conscious as they flew away. For good measure Moon sent another barrage of lightning crystals at the creature, sending up a flash of light as well to blind it so it wouldn't follow them.

"Are you alright?" she asked over the rush of wind around them. It was harder to hear on the cloud than on the boat, but she thought he could hear her over all his coughing and sputtering.

"Yeah, I think so,"he choked,still trying to get the water out of his lungs. When he could breathe again, he looked back up at her, confusion turning to a kind of awe she had only seen him use when he had first seen her wand. "Did you just fight a kraken?"

"Yup."

"And did-did you just save my life?"

"I'm as surprised as you are!" she laughed, and she was. She really hadn't known what she was capable of, but she really had done that. By herself. Of course, she had been the one to summon the rainbow kraken in the first place, but that couldn't undo the fact that she had saved him, and they had gotten away safely.

Even the inevitable dissolving of her cloud did not dampen her spirits,they were low enough to the water that she practically dove in, losing sight of the reptile but still knowing that they were safer than they had been. At least they were leagues away from danger.

She felt pride as she resurfaced, even though she was – again – soaking wet. She swam along now intending to find her companion, but her good mood was – again - short-lived.

For this was when she realized that she was swimming along quite uninhibited, when in the back of her mind she knew that there was something that should be weighing her down slightly, something that she should probably be holding onto...

"Wait," her stomach dropped at the sudden realization. "Where is my wand?"

Scanning the surrounding surface frantically, Moon splashed about in search of it. She took a breath and dove back underwater, eyes straining to see in the various colors of water. Oh, how on Mewni could she have held onto it through such a long fall into the sea AND while fighting a kraken just to lose it now?

That was when her eyes landed on the lizard, who floated near what looked like some of the remains of their boat, surrounded by the stray sea foam, clutching a very familiar object in his claws.

Relief washed over her as Moon made a beeline swim for him, calling out to him as she approached.

"Oh, thank goodness, you found it! I was so worried that I would never see it again! How in the multiverse could I have faced my mother without it? Oh thank you, thank you, thank you."

As she approached she stretched out both of her hands towards the wand, so she could even more easily reclaim it (or give him a hug, which the thought did cross her mind,she was that excited).

But as she got closer, she noticed something odd about her companion, and not only because he wasn't immediately handing it over. Because, he wasn't. He just floated there for a moment, holding the wand in his claws and staring down at it intently. He didn't look up at her immediately, either. He simply held it in such a gentle way, as if it were the most fragile thing imaginable, but also like it might explode at any second.

"Um, hello?" she called softly, sending a tiny splash his way when he didn't respond.

Finally, he looked back up at her, for a moment looking at her like he didn't recognize her. Moon was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable now, he'd been staring so long. But she smiled warmly at him anyway as she held out a hand for him to give her the wand.

It took him another moment, but hand it back, he did. He did not return her smile, however.

"I think, maybe we should be going," he said distractedly as he pulled out his scissors and cut a portal just above their heads. He climbed up through it with little difficulty, and for a second Moon worried that he might be leaving her behind, stranded in an unfamiliar sea. But his head and arms came back through and she grabbed hold of him as he pulled her through to yet another dimension.


	3. Geometry and Ice Cream

To say that the next dimension on this impromptu tour was a tight fit would be an understatement.

There seemed to be no discernible up nor down, and in the in-between space that Moon and her companion occupied lay out a wide but thin space that looked almost like a map. A map, or possibly an ant farm, as Moon could see tiny little shapes moving about in the area directly below her head.

Her head and his were the only parts that fit in any actual way into the 'landscape', the rest of their bodies hung out in the void. They were intersecting this tiny universe by their mere presence., and holding up the traffic of the small geometric shapes that now began to crowd around where their heads met with their 'land'.

"You know," Moon murmured from partway below the world. "I'm beginning to think you didn't have much of a plan at all in this escape of yours. Where exactly are we now?"

"For the record, transcending planes with a pair of scissors has got to be the least-effective method of travel anyone could conceive."

"You're only saying that because you don't understand how they work."

"And you do?"

Moon tried to shrug through the flat plane before them. "I just assumed it was magic."

"Well, to answer your question, it appears we've found a two-dimensional world. One which we are currently inside. However, being three-dimensional beings means that-"

"We literally can't fit into this world," she finished his sentence for him. "Again, good call."

Since he was taller than her, his head poked all the way out of the plane, so his entire head was free to turn to her frustratedly.

"So I made a mistake, it happens to us all. It happened to you, earlier," he pointed out. "And if you must know you might have more experience with your wand than I do with these scissors."

Moon couldn't help but feel bad at that revelation. So that must have been why he refused to tell her where he'd been headed. He honestly didn't know and was still trying to figure out the scissors. She didn't know why he had tried to hide it, not knowing something wasn't something to be ashamed of. Did he think she would think less of him? If so, she certainly didn't.

"You're right," she said. "It was a mistake, no big deal." She tried to sound encouraging and apologetic from halfway through a dimension, though she wasn't certain how well that came off.

"I've got my wand, you've got the dimensional scissors. We're both still figuring things out." It was difficult to smile up at him when tiny little shape people were poking at her face, but she thought he got the sentiment. It was then that an idea struck her.

"Ooh, I think I have an idea," she said as she grasped her wand tighter in her hand, feeling it warming up for a spell.

"Now Moon, if you're going to use magic, just be very sure of what you want it do-"

"It's okay, I know this spell," she assured him. Then with a flick of her wrist she said "Radiance shadow transform!"

And like that Moon could feel herself shrinking and flattening like a tiny, tiny pancake, as the world around them appeared to grow larger and larger. Soon they were completely two-dimensional beings, floating about with all the other two-dimensional shapes. It was hard for Moon's eyes – so used to width and depth – to adjust to seeing the world from this perspective. All she could discern at first were line segments, one of which was darker and taller than the rest and standing about as close as her lizard companion was before they transformed.

"Is that you?" she asked, reaching out with one scarily-flat hand towards the line segment.

"Yes, it's me," he answered. "And I should probably say well done, nothing seems to have gone wrong with this spell. Also that's my nose."

Moon moved her hand back. "Sorry. So now that we're here inside this flat dimension, do you maybe want to look around?"

"Around not being a concept these people recognize," he replied. "I'd just as soon find another dimension if it's all the same to you."

It was then that Moon felt a tap on her other side, and she moved her eyes (which was about all she could do, not being able to turn her head) to see another line, this one shorter and red. She took this to be one of the two-dimensional shapes that she saw crowding around them from above.

Right, they had been surrounded by shapes, and it stood to reason that they still were.

"Um, hello," she greeted the red line with some degree of uncertainty.

"Excuse me," the line said. "But did I hear you call this world a 'flat land'?"

"Uh... yes?" Moon answered, unsure now if she had insulted their dimension on accident.

The red line then called out loudly, Moon assumed to the crowd. "There you have it, two more believers of my theory! These irregular shapes believe – like me – that our world is flat!"

"Preposterous," called a circle from the crowd that Moon could only barely make out (as her eyes adjusted to two dimensions,she began to differentiate the different shaped from one another)

"Here here," agreed another. "Keep your crackpot theories to your three-sided friends, triangle."

"And do you really expect us to believe a couple of irregular shapes?" yet another shape cried. "Call for their removal, their asymmetry is hurting my eyes."

"Asymmetry?" Moon scoffed. "I'll have you know that my family is known for their facial symmetry."

"I think the word 'removal' should be the more pressing word, here, princess" her companion commented.

"He's right," said the red triangle that had spoken out and was still beside them. "They've already called for the octagons."

And sure enough, the crowd was parting up and down to let through several very large and surly looking octagons.

Things were escalating quickly, and Moon was starting to think she had had enough of this particular adventure.

"Okay, I'm ready whenever you are with those scissors," she called to the lizard, but it seemed as though he had the same idea she had.

Moon heard the tell tale snipping of the scissors, but there was no proceeding sound of a portal being opened, and she didn't see one opening up in front of them (or to the side of them as the case was).

"It's not working,"she heard him say, voice growing frustrated and frantic at the same time. Again she heard the scissors' blades slicing together, but nothing would come of it. "Wait, oh of course. The portal is three dimensional, it needs three dimensions to be able to open."

"Oh, well that's just great," Moon complained, "So now we're about to be captured and taken to who knows where in some strange dimension."

"I know where," the red triangle said, "and you don't wanna go there. Come with me, and I'll get you to safety."

"Thanks a lot, but I think we'll be okay. The scissors might not work at the moment, but I've still got this," she held out her wand, as flat as her own hand in this form. "The magic should still work even in two dimensions."

If she could fully make out the triangle's facial features, Moon would have seen its eyes widen on the wand in her hand, she would have seen the awe in its eyes, an awe similar to that of her companion upon first seeing it. Before she could manage a spell,quicker than it could take her to finish a breath, the triangle lunged for her and snatched the wand right out of her grasp.

"Yoink!" it called mockingly as it scurried away off below the encroaching octagons. Moon screamed with surprise and embarrassment. That was twice today she had lost her wand, and at the most inopportune time, as well.

As they were surrounded on all four sides and apprehended by the octagons, Moon heard the lizard from some where beside her. "Perhaps you should consider tieing your wand to your wrist or something."

"Is this really the time to be suggesting things like that?" she snapped. "I'll think of something, don't you worry."

But nothing came to her. Not as they were being lead away by the octagons, not as they were being locked into a two dimensional cell, and not as they were being taunted by their guard for their irregular shapes.

"Just look at you, what are you supposed to be? Ain't never seen a shape that looked like you."

And on it went, Moon was surprised that the octagon didn't pull out a stick and start poking at them or throwing things in their direction.

"Just what do you plan on doing to us?" she finally asked as the guard seemed to lose interest in taunting them, for his insults carried no real weight to the two of them since they were all shape-related.

"All irregular shapes are subjected to the same re-shaping process," he answered, as if the question were beneath him. This was a tone that Moon was not used to hearing directed at her, and she very much did not appreciate it.

"Ahem, excuse me, but that is not the proper way to address royalty."

"Oh, and who might you be? Princess of the weirdos?" the guard scoffed and laughed at his own joke. This was getting Moon nowhere and not helping to ease her frustration with this entire dimension.

Now when you say 're-shaped', you mean?" Moon's companion asked.

"I mean they will be taking you and re-shaping you into a proper shape," he answered with just as much annoyance. "In the re-shaper, of course."

"Do we get a choice in this matter?"

"Of course not,no irregulars do. If you did then who'd ever choose to be a triangle?" the guard guffawed again at his own joke,which only served to irritate Moon more.

"It's bad enough I went and lost the wand again, but do we really have to be subjected to all of this merely because we look different from them?"

It was still difficult to tell, but Moon thought she saw the reptile raise an eyebrow at her.

"This is your first time experiencing prejudice, isn't it?" he asked her.

"Well... yes," she said, a small, unladylike whine creeping into her voice. "And I don't care for it very much." She did the best she could to slump down onto the side of their cell, and her lizard companion did his best to join her.

"I've dealt with this sort of thing my entire life, being a monster on Mewni."

"You have?" she asked disbelievingly."But... that's different on Mewni. You see, these shapes are being prejudiced for no real reason. All the shapes here are pretty much the same, but they can't see that. Whereas on Mewni, the mewmans are good and the monsters – well – aren't."

She realized too late that she might have actually insulted him, so she tried to backtrack, taking onto her statement; "But they aren't all bad, of course. You certainly haven't been. You've been quite helpful."

"Apart from their methods for dealing with their lower class,I don't see much of a difference," she heard him say. "Whatever shape doesn't fit in has to be corrected, because it's not as if they're all fine just the way they are."

"But we * _are *_ fine, they just don't know that. If they realized we were from a different dimension, they'd understand and maybe treat us better."

"Maybe, but ignorance can be dangerous," he said. "It inspires fear of the unknown, of what is accepted as normal or regular by a society."

"But again, it's different on Mewni," she stated, although now a bit hesitantly. She had a sinking feeling that he wasn't just talking about this weird geometric shape dimension with such contempt.

"Is it?" he asked "Then could you tell me why it is that we monsters don't wield magic, or why we aren't permitted to live within the magical barrier of your kingdom?"

"I... hadn't ever really thought about it before," she said, and starting to feel dumb for not thinking about it sooner. She wondered about it now, however. All her life she had been told that the monsters were dangerous, creatures to be feared. That they would steal the royal family's magic and/or possibly even murder them for it. She had always seen them as greedy, treacherous, and untrustworthy.

But this reptilian creature she had met, he didn't seem at all like that. Of course she had a very small personal sampling of the monsters of Mewni – and they had mostly been under one form of duress or another pretty much since they met – but she had trusted him enough to let him lead her on this adventure, this break from her every day life. And he had encouraged her, even looked out for her by finding her wand. These were all things she had never thought possible of a monster before.

He was challenging all of her preconceptions merely by existing. It made her wonder how much she really knew about monsters, or about anything.

"But... there has to be some reasons." _Right?_ She added I her thoughts.

"I'll bet once you really get down to it, that these shapes might find those reasons to the just a arbitrary to them as you find theirs," he continued, and Moon couldn't exactly disagree. She couldn't really think of anything to say to that.

Before she could give an answer, the guard was hit by a blast of magic, Moon jumped, wondering just from where it had come.

"Ka pow!" cried a voice as their small two-dimensional cell was broken open,and in came the small red triangle from before, the one who had stolen her wand,now wielding it with some fairly impressive results.

"This way, quickly. Follow me!" it called, motioning for them to follow. Moon was uncertain, since this was the being who took her wand, but then again perhaps she could trick it into giving it back.

They decided to take a chance and follow it, down a long corridor and around a corner into a small alleyway.

Once they were certain the coast was clear, the triangle spoke to them in a quiet, hurried whisper.

"Look, my name is Sal, and I'm really sorry for taking this," Sal indicated the wand. "But I thought it could help me prove my theory. If you two really are from another dimension - one that has more dimensions than this place - I thought maybe this was how you got here, and it could prove that our world is flat."

"Your world * _is *_ flat, at least compared to ours," Moon said. "But I need my wand back, Sal. Besides, it's not how we got here, anyway."

"It isn't? Then how did you come to be here?"

"My scissors," the lizard held them up for Sal to see. "But at the moment they don't work, so even if you had them, you wouldn't be able to go anywhere."

"Maybe I don't have to," Sal said. "We triangles are so often overlooked here, that no one really knows how good we are with reverse-engineering our own tech. If you would let me see those scissors, I could maybe make some for myself. So, how about a trade? The scissors for the wand?"

It didn't take long for Moon to agree. "Oh, by all means, but do try to be fast, we want to be able to leave this dimension as soon as possible."

"But Moon, if you have the wand back, we might be able to do something to help the shapes of this world while Sal finishes what it needs to do." Her lizard companion pointed out.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I think you know exactly what I mean," he replied.

For a moment, she was lost. But following his train of thought, she remembered what the guard had said about the unfair practice of re-shaping the beings here that didn't fit in.

"You want to do something about that machine?" she asked.

"I think we should destroy it," he said plainly.

Moon wasn't so certain as he. She could sympathize with him on this, to be sure. That was an unfair practice to subject these beings to – and she understood from where his want to help them came – but really, who were they to meddle in the affairs of another dimension?

"Is it really our place to do something like that?"

"There may come a time in your life when you are faced with choices that could shape countless lives. One day it will be your place, no matter what you might feel about it," he said, doing his best to grab her shoulders in their flattened states. "You agree with me that this is an unfair practice, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Then if you can help them, you should and damn the consequences."

Moon couldn't help but nod in agreement. He was just so sure, so passionate about it, and he was her only real ally in this whole dimension (she didn't really count Sal, they had stolen her wand, after all). She wanted to help if she could. If not for these beings, then for him.

* * *

Moon's wand returned to her hand, they followed Sal's directions towards the place where the re-shaper was was kept. It was an enormous shape, made up of what looked like cookie cutters that could bend an shape and re-shape just about anything, or any being into any of the geometric shapes that lived on this world.

Moon considered what she was about to do, destroying this big mechanical machine of [tyranny]. Did she really want to get involved in another world's affairs like this? But she considered again what her companion had said, about how their worlds were not so different. Could that have been true, as well? Could the mewmans be as wrong as these shapes about the monsters? These shapes feared and hated anything irregular, and Moon wanted to believe that her people were more evolved than that.

Well, in any case, here in this moment she was in the right, and these shapes were in the wrong. It was wrong for them to oppress the asymmetrical shapes and the ones of lower rank merely because of how they looked. It just wasn't fair to make them conform to what their standard for normal was here.

Moon nodded to herself, took aim,and blasted at the machine with all the power she could muster. She wasn't really sure if this was entirely the most diplomatic of solutions to this problem, but it was the one her gut told her was the right one.

The re-shaper exploded into a million pieces of glitter that burst into flames as it rained down. This alerted many shapes to its location, including the octagon guards, so Moon hurried as fast as she could away from the scene and scurried to find their rendezvous point.

Her companion had stayed behind to assist Sal in the completion of the duplicate scissors, and as an angry mob of high-ranking shapes began to search for them, Moon and the lizard quickly said their goodbyes to Sal.

"Hope the new scissors work out for you," moon said to them. "If they do, be sure to come visit Mewni . If you can, that is," she added, remembering the whole two-dimensional thing again.

"Thanks again for your help," Sal replied. Sirens

With sirens wailing in the background, Moon grasped the reptile's clawed hand and waved her wand to counter her Radiance Shadow Transform spell. She silently prayed that she didn't mess up and that they wouldn't be caught in some sort of half-two-dimensional, half-three-dimensional amalgamation.

Thankfully, her prayers were evidently answered, for they grew back into their natural forms, too-big for the small dimension and all.

Moon could see smoke rising up from where the re-shaper had been, and all of the shapes rushing towards it or running around in a panic. And she wondered again if she had done the right thing.

Her companion – who had not yet let go of her hand – gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, as if to answer her silent question. She smiled up at him as he went to open another portal, but she stopped him.

"Wait," she said. "Maybe... maybe let me pick the dimension this time?"

He blinked and stalled for a moment, but then shrugged and handed her the scissors. She had never used them before, but she hoped it was like casting a spell. She pictured the dimension she wanted to visit, and then began to snip a hole into the fabric of reality.

* * *

They were soon in the middle of what looked like a gigantic restaurant, a menu on the wall behind the counter stretched the entire width and height of the wall, all crammed with different flavors and varieties of one particular thing.

"Ice cream?" the lizard asked skeptically. "I let you pick the next stop, and you choose going for ice cream?"

Moon nodded, so pleased with herself to have actually gotten the destination correct. "Yes, ice cream. Welcome to Gloppydrop. My father says it has the best ice cream in the multiverse."

She tugged him along to join the line that lead to the counter. "I figured that we've had a lot of excitement, we should just take a breather. I mean, that was sort of the initial point of my coming along with you, for a break, after all."

It didn't take them long to reach the counter, even though there were literally thousands of flavors and combinations to chose from, it didn't seem to take the beings in front of them long to decide from all the choices.

It took Moon a little longer than her companion to decide, and while she was choosing he went off in search of a table for them to sit at. When she had finally made her decision on what to get, she took her small cup and his cone and went in search of him.

It was only when she couldn't find him and wanted to shout out his name that she realized, she didn't know his name. Well, that wouldn't do. She had just been calling him 'the lizard' or 'the reptile' this whole time, what if she had accidentally insulted him? Come to think of it, had she actually called him by anything since she met him?

When she finally found him waving her over, she walked over to their table and handed him his ice cream, wanting to ask but not entirely sure how to approach the subject. It seemed weird to not know his name already, and she thought it might be rude to ask now.

"I'm sorry, but I just realized that I never asked you your name," Moon said with a nervous laugh. "Heh, I guess I sort of got carried away with my own ideas back there. Then between the rainbow kraken, the crazy flat land, and now, guess it just slipped my mind to ask."

The reptile lowered his ice cream mid-lick, looking thoughtful again."That isn't really a problem, seeing as I don't actually have one."

"You don't?"

"The other monsters never gave me one. It's actually very rare for any of my kind to have a proper name, usually when one of us gets one it's merely a description."

"Well that doesn't sound like a good system. What if they need to get your attention? Do they just say; 'Hey there, Scaly' or something?"

"Sometimes, usually just 'hey you'. Sometimes 'friend' if they mean to be kind. We can usually distinguish each other fairly well."

"Hmm, I wonder what they would call me,"she wondered aloud, pondering her own most-prominent attributes.

"Probably something like 'Bright Eyes', with those eyes of yours,"he answered. She raised an eyebrow at that remark, since it was awfully quick to have been off the top of his head. He blinked and looked away from her questioning look.

"Only because they take up half your face, that is."

"Well, what about your parents," she asked to steer the topic back to a name for him.

"I don't know anything about them, much less what they would have named me."

That was an even sadder revelation than about not having a name. "Wait, so you're an orphan, too? AND the rest of your kind pick on you? That is just-"

"It's fine," he interrupted as if it didn't matter. As if that wasn't something so absolutely heartbreaking.

"No, it's not," she stated firmly. "It's the saddest thing I've ever heard. You don't seem the type to deserve such a life. No to me, anyway. Anyone who would just let a stranger tag along with them through dimensions deserves better."

Moon put down her spoon to reach out and cover his free clawed hand with hers. It was a sympathetic gesture that he did not seem to be accustomed to nor know what to do about it.

"I just need something to call you," she said. "And not something so impersonal as 'you'".

"If it's that important to you, then you pick something," he answered after a long moment of looking down at their hands. He flicked his eyes back up to hers. "I'll answer to whatever you come up with."

Moon was surprised by this invitation. She had never named anything or anyone before. She didn't know how much thought should go into it. She looked him up and down, trying to decide if there was any name she knew that might fit him.

She took another spoonful of her ice cream and – going with the first thing that popped into her head – said, "Toffee".

He looked more than a bit confused. "Why Toffee?"he asked with more than slight bemusement.

"Because it's the least monster-sounding thing I can think of, and you're the least-monstery creature I've met," she smiled warmly as she took another bite. "Plus it's the kind of ice cream you got."

The newly-christened Toffee made an amused sound,but said nothing as he continued licking his ice cream,which was nearly down to the cone now.

"And I'd be happy to call you 'friend' as well," Moon added. This prompted a smile from the reptile, which only made Moon's smile grow as she scraped the bottom of her own ice cream cup.

"Let me pick the next place," Toffee said. "Then..." he hesitated. "Then I think I should take you back home."

"Home? But we're having so much fun," Moon said. Even with the dangerous stuff, she couldn't even fathom going back home now that she had tasted this little bit of adventure.

"I may not know much about having people like parents,but I'm sure yours are worried sick by now. And at the very least your royal guards are probably searching every conceivable dimension for you."

Moon drooped at that thought, he was probably right. Her mother must be in a tizzy and her father must be scrambling the guards as they sat there. The guilt over the realization of what she had done with this impulsive trip started to really sink in. Of course he was right, this had been a pretty dumb move on her part. But there was still a very large part of her that did not regret it.

"Also I think four jumps is enough for your first time."

Moon perked up at that. 'First time'? "What do you mean?"

"Only that if you were to go home soon, I could come back that much sooner to take you out again."

"Really? You'd do that?" her eyes widened and she leaned in closer towards him, nearly jumping off her chair.

"Of course," he answered, now smiling with his teeth, possibly amused by her sudden burst of excitement. "What are friends for?"


End file.
